


we goof and we laugh, but i can’t help it

by x4vintage



Category: Splatoon
Genre: Fluff, M/M, One Shot, gah its been a while idk what to tag, seaparty, squidparty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-10-26 11:19:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17744957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/x4vintage/pseuds/x4vintage
Summary: It became routine for Rider to meet up with the wildcard blue inkling on days when his team was taking a day off  from turfing. Honestly, he was fine with this, since these turf battles served as opportunity to become more flexible with team compatibility, and to silently study Goggles. Even after months of analyzing the chaotic inkling’s moves, he still was able to surprise Rider with new tricks and ways to get himself out of sticky situations, and triumph as victorious.





	we goof and we laugh, but i can’t help it

It became routine for Rider to meet up with the wildcard blue inkling on days when his team was taking a day off from turfing. Honestly, he was fine with this, since these turf battles served as opportunity to become more flexible with team compatibility, and to silently study Goggles. Even after months of analyzing the chaotic inkling’s moves, he still was able to surprise Rider with new tricks and ways to get himself out of sticky situations, and triumph as victorious.

Speaking of which, the yellow-green inkling noticed the other running towards him, struggling to hold his weapon case while sporadically waving his arm.

“Hey Rider!” Goggles called out, gaining the attention of others in the square as he sped past them. He skidded to a halt when he got into proximity of the former; said inkling hummed in acknowledgement.

“Are you ready for today’s matches?” he beamed with rays of enthusiasm.

“Course I am,” Rider replied, softly smiling back; it was hard not to, as Goggles’ happy nature was contagiously infectious.

“I’m so pumped for today!” the blue inkling shout as his hands moved around rapidly, conveying his bursting excitement.

“Let’s go then,” Rider replied as he picked up his dynamo’s case from the ground, and hoisted it over his right shoulder.

 

The two squids headed into Deca Tower to hop into a turf battle. Matches where even teammates were unpredictable and mysterious became more common for inklings and octolings to partake in; Rider and Goggles were apart of that group.

The pair came down a dimly lit hallway, with the only source of illumination being the announcement screen they passed by. It shuffled through the opened maps on for turf, ranked, and league for the current two-hour duration.

“Ooh! Maps right now are Arowana Mall and Snapper Canal!” Goggles exclaimed, pointing at the screen as they walked by. Rider broke out into a cold sweat as second nature, remembering the events of their first meeting… and his first pantsing.

They reached the main lobby of Deca Tower, where screen stands were set up around the room. There were a handful of other inklings and octolings occupying the machines to register into battle; the two inklings hustled and found two vacant ones to the right of the room, and each got onto one.

 

Rider and Goggles took out their information cards, and swiped them to the side of the machine; their screens welcomed them back as clicked the green rectangle to join a turf battle. The both of them were immediately filled into a match lobby about to begin. The two inklings were startled at such quickness of getting into a match as the screens blinked a green arrow that redirected them down one of the hallways; they hurried down the hallway carrying their weapon cases to get ready for battle.

 

The yellow-green and blue inkling arrived in a small room, the lobby they were directed to. An inkling with a Takoroka Mesh was helping players by assigning them to their teams and giving them ink tanks; she noticed the two walk in.

“Hey! You guys must be the last players!” She waved and shouted, grabbing two ink tanks leaning on the wall with one hand, and skittered to them.

She faced Rider and pointed at him, “You’re on the yellow team,” turned to Goggles, and redirected her finger, “and you’re on the purple team!”

The short-bobbed inkling shoved an ink tank each into their hands, and the yellow-green and blue inkling accepted them. The announcer skipped away, attending to the other players.

Rider slipped the ink tank onto his shoulders, and glanced towards Goggles. “Guess we won’t fight together this round, huh?”

Goggles seemed to pout for a second, stopping midway of putting his ink tank on, but quickly turned towards the other with reassurance. “It’s okay! There’s always more matches that we could be placed together!”

Rider hummed, and focused on changing his tentacles to yellow. He furrowed his eyebrows while glaring at the ground; he felt deflated and a bit disappointed not being on the same team as Goggles. Besides the missed opportunity of analyzing his battle strategies, seeing him radiate such drive and motivation for having fun in battles had been rubbing off on him, and Rider silently embraced it. Of course, he’d rather jump off the map than admit it, but it was rather comforting and admirable to see Goggles in action.

 

Takoroka Mesh grabbed a mic and projected her voice throughout the small lobby. “Is everyone ready? Good, okay.”

She moved towards the blank screen on the left side of the room, and held her hand out to the screen; on cue, an overview image of Inkopolis’ most famous outdoor shopping district was displayed.

“The map you guys will be fighting on is Arowana Mall!”

Goggles lightly jabbed his elbow at Rider’s left arm, grinning. “Brings memories, doesn’t it?”

In the past, Rider would’ve immediately whacked the blue inkling’s head; instead, he groaned “Shut up,” while struggling not to give Goggles the satisfaction of him cracking up.

 

The announcer then pointed towards the two superjump spawns- one purple and one yellow- that appeared before her, while the ceiling of the lobby opened up.

“Superjump to the mall using these spawns that correspond to your team color! Battle starts 5 seconds after all players have superjumped! Good luck!”

Members of each team begin to superjump to the mall, with Rider and Goggles lagging behind last.

 

“Good luck, Rider!” the now purple inkling cheered.

 

Rider smiled back. “You too.”

 

The two inklings got onto the spawns, and superjumped to the mall. They stayed in relevant proximity of each other as they soared through the air, but separated when the mall came in sight.

Rider splashed down into his team’s spawn, and waited for the cue in squid form. The starting music began to chime, indicating the start of the round. Both teams transformed into their inkling and octoling forms, and got into their battle stance. The overhead speaker initiated the battle.

 

“Ready…”

 

“GO!”

 

Two of Rider’s teammates inked the upper right pathway, while the other took the upper left route. He began to pull his dynamo back, and swung a vertical flick down the steep ramp near base. As he headed towards the center, he painted left and right, covering a vast amount of turf, while constantly swam around the area to refill his ink tank. Rider swam up the ramp to the middle, spotting two people of the enemy team heading towards him. The yellow inkling swiftly splatted the both of them with a flick of his dynamo; the anguished cries of the other cephalopods as they ascended back to spawn caused Rider to smirk.

 

“Booyah!”

 

Rider perked up, hearing the chimes of the familiar voice calling out, and looked around. He spotted the latter on top of the grates above on his right.

 

“That was so cool, Rider!” Goggles continued, grinning and waving his Splattershot around as if the said inkling had yet to spot him.

 

Rider blinked a few times, having to process what was going on. His brain had short-circuited due to his compliment; his heart felt as if it was being squeezed, and his face began to burn up. Was he really doing this mid-battle? He opened his mouth, to say something, but before any word came out of his mouth, he was bombarded by purple ink from the side, and was splatted; the enemy jet squelcher had taken advantage of him being distracted.

 

The yellow inkling clicked his tongue being forced to respawn back at base, immediately speeding forwards as soon as he returned to his humanoid form. Rider swung his dynamo as he charged forward, reinking over the purple covering the lower part of the mall while checking his map. His teammates seemed to have their sides under control; the charger perched at their spot, and the jet squelcher and carbon roller pushing past the middle. He took notice of the purple on his team’s side alleyway as it crawled more to base. Rider inked up a path up the steep ramp, swam up the ramp and the sponge, and hopped into the side alleyway.

He spotted the opponent inkling, and pulled his dynamo back.

 

“Thought you could sneak pass, huh?” Rider smirked, and splatted a heavy amount of ink onto the N-ZAP ‘85, now wide-eyed, and watched as the soul of the inkling floated and teleported back to their base.

 

Rider repainted the rest of the alleyway, crawling towards the center of the mall. He peeked outward, seeing the middle has been splashed more with purple than yellow, yet for the most part, it seemed to be calm. The bell for one minute left rang, and Rider prepared to strike and reink the middle when he took notice of the very familiar inkling swimming up and jumping towards the purple puddle next to him.

 

“Goggles?! What are you-,” Rider hissed, and began to panic because conveniently enough, one of his teammates is superjumping to him.

Goggles hid in the small puddle just in time for Rider’s teammate to land; Rider swung from the platform, acting as if he was reclaiming lost turf, and watched as the carbon roller hopped off the platform to paint the center.

Rider huffed, turning back to the quiet, undisturbed puddle.

 

“You can come out now,” he deadpanned.

 

Goggles popped out of the ink, and grinned.

 

“Phew, that was close! I thought they were gonna catch on I was here!” he babbled.

 

“Let’s just go back here,” Rider suggested, pointing towards the alleyway.

 

The yellow inkling walked to the side while the purple inkling hopped through the yellow ink. Goggles shot a small puddle of ink for him to stand in, and Rider leaned his dynamo up against the wall. The latter crossed his arms and glared at the other inkling.

 

“It’s not like you to goof off during a match just to see what I’m up to.” Rider starts, “You should go back to turfing.”

 

“Everyone on my team’s just doing their own thing, so I got bored,” Goggles pouted.

 

Rider squints at that. “Still… this can definitely be practice for matches.”

 

Goggles puffed his cheeks and scrunched up his face.

 

“But I wanted to see you!” he exclaimed.

 

Rider’s ears perked up as they began to glow gold.

The flustered inkling turned towards his right, covering his vibrantly bright face with his hand, and groaned. It was a cheesy enough line, but it still tugged at his heartstrings. Goggles beamed and let out a few giggles before hopping two steps forward to give Rider a peck on the cheek, prompting the other to sputter. As the purple inkling squidflopped around the embarrassed yellow inkling, a whistle blew over the mall, followed by a “game set!”

“We better… get going…” Rider squeaked out, his face still blushed with gold as he reached for his dynamo.

 

Both inklings turned back around the corner and got down to the center of the map while members of both teams began to gather around. Judd and L’il Judd were on top of a platform, with the announcer next to them; everyone was scattered around facing them, with Rider and Goggles standing together in close proximity.

The two cats began to roll their tiny arms as the cephalopods watched in suspense. They squatted and held their positions before L’il Judd pounced back up holding out a purple flag while Judd dramatically laid on his belly, putting on the look of anguish.

There was a mix of groans and cheers, followed by a few “good game”s. Rider huffs, and tilts his head to glance at Goggles.

 

“We basically just forfeited this match, huh…”

 

The inkling that was acknowledged blinked a few times before smiling and letting out his contagious laugh.

“Yeah, but I’m happy either way though!” Goggles gazed softly at Rider, beaming. The latter absolutely melted at this, becoming flushed once more. This was going to be a long, heartstring-pulling day.

**Author's Note:**

> fic based off [this clip](https://twitter.com/explododeku/status/1060727683829522432) while i was playing with a friend :3c
> 
> hiiiii i'm back kind of.... i never actually write fics cause this is just one of the hobbies i try to keep to myself due to embarrassment but here this fic is ..... after a year of inactivity....
> 
> the one good news is that i'm doing better emotionally and mentally given that the only fics that made it up here were 3 (now 2 due to graphic implications) vent fics... also really proud that i decided to push this into 2k words
> 
> um... idk feel free to @ me on twitter @explododeku, i'm more active there...


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